Switch Ports

Table of contents

Meraki's MS switches allow for the configuration of a single port to thousands of ports through our industry-first Virtual Stacking technology. Virtual Stacking provides centralized management for up to 10,000 switch ports. Unlike traditional stacking, virtually stacked switches do not require a physical connection, can be in different physical locations, and can be of different switch models, thereby simplifying large-scale distributed deployments.

Isolation:Enabling this feature prevents any isolated port from communicating with other isolated ports.

Type: Switch ports can be configured as one of two types:

Trunk: Configuring a trunk port will allow the selected port to accept/pass 802.1Q tagged traffic. This type is usually used for connections to other switches or access points.

Native VLAN: All untagged traffic will be placed on this VLAN.

Allowed VLANs: Only these VLANs will be able to traverse this link.

Access: Configuring an access port will place all traffic on its defined VLAN and will only pass untagged traffic. This type is usually used for connections to end-users.

Access Policy: Apply a restriction policy to this port.

Open: All devices will be able to access this port.

MAC Whitelist: Only devices with MAC addresses specified in this list will have access to this port. Up to 20 MAC addresses can be defined.

Sticky MAC: The switch will dynamically learn the MAC addresses of devices connected to the port and place the address in the MAC Whitelist. The administrator can define the size of this list. When this list is full, all subsequent devices will be denied access to this port.

Voice VLAN: CDP/LLDP capable voice devices will be able to use this VLAN.

Searching for ports

The virtual stack allows an administrator to view all switch ports in one easy-to-navigate page. To further simplify switch port management, a dynamic search bar is available at the top to allow for quick searching of ports.

return all ports with the specified port schedule (wildcard supported)

schedule:*

Group

group:value

return all ports belonging to a common group (the virtual stack automatically categorizes the 3 most common configuration types into groups 1,2 and 3)

group:1

group:2

group:3

MAC Whitelist

mac_whitelist:*

return all ports with a mac-whitelist enabled (you can substitute the * with a mac address value using colons as separators)

mac_whitelist:aa:bb:cc:dd:ee:ff

mac_whitelist:*

The search tool is also capable of intelligently combining multiple search queries. See a few examples below.

Search: name:"joe's port" AND switch:"2nd floor POE"

Result:returns all port(s) with the name "joe's port" on the switch named "2nd floor POE"

Search:port:1-15 link:"10 gbps" switch:"2nd floor IDF"

Result: Returns all ports configured for 10gbit from the port range of 1-15 on the switch named "2nd floor IDF"

Link Aggregation

The MS switches supports Link Aggregation (LACP) groups of up to 8 ports. A "Link Aggregate" is a combination of ports that act as one logical link. This is often referred to as Link Bonding, Link Aggregation, or EtherChannel. A link aggregate will load balance across the different physical links for additional performance, and will also give higher reliability because the link aggregate will continue to function as long as at least one of the physical links is working.

To configure an aggregate, simply choose the ports to be aggregated by checking their respective boxes and then select the Aggregate option at the top of the page (see video 1 below).

Doing this will create an LACP port group running mode:active.

By default the MS series runs an LACP Passive instance per port. This is to prevent loops when a bond is connected to a switch running default configuration.

It is generally recommended that ports are first aggregated and then physically connect the aggregated ports. Be sure to configure the aggregate (or have LACP enabled) on both ends of the link.

Selecting Aggregate ports

In the virtual stack, select the ports to be aggregated. Once the ports have been selected, choose Aggregate at the top or bottom of the port list and accept the change notification.

Splitting Aggregated ports

To split an aggregated link, simply select the aggregated port and choose Split. This will revert the changes and split the group into its own separate ports.

Port Mirroring

It may be necessary to configure a mirrored port or range of ports. This is often useful for network devices that require monitoring of network traffic, such as a VoIP recording solution or an IDS (Intrusion Detection System).

In order to enable and configure a mirrored port or range of ports, navigate to Switch > Monitor > Switch Ports. On this page select the ports that are intended for mirroring and hit the Mirror button:

Next, enter the destination port for the mirror session. If the ports are in a switch stack then also select the desired switch in the stack for the mirror destination.

Once the Mirror is configured it can be easily identified using the Mirror column in Dashboard: